Inner Wave Announce New Album, ‘See You When I Get Back,’ out 2/27/26; “Child” out Today

Today, LA-based Latin indie band Inner Wave announces their fifth album, SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK, out February 27 via Nettwerk. The 13-track album represents a massive leap for the California indie-rock outfit, honing their winning melodic instincts to deliver the sharpest and richest version of their sound yet. At once broadly appealing and inarguably personal, SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK recalls the lush psych-pop of Tame Impala, the Sea and Cake’s cool-handed post-rock, and the glowing synth fantasias of Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo.

SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK captures a group in transformation: maturing with age, navigating loss and getting sober, while incorporating feedback from three feverish years of post-COVID touring for their 2021 record Apoptosis. “We started to notice that the most energy we’d get from the audience was from upbeat songs,” points out guitarist Elijah Trujillo. “We were really trying to capture that with this album, so we ended up going back to our roots—stuff we grew up on, like garage rock—while still adding our own flavor.”

Once life on the road began to slow, Inner Wave decamped to their rehearsal space (lovingly dubbed “The Swamp”), where See You When I Get Back began to materialize over the past year. “We got very detail-oriented with the sonics of the album and started recording in many different ways we hadn’t tried before,” shares Sotelo. He and keyboardist/engineer Jose Cruz, who went on to join the band after co-producing Apoptosis, were the key architects of this try-anything-once approach.

Along with experimentation, the creative process of SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK found Inner Wave navigating significant personal change: namely, the passing of their first manager, Gonzo Lubel, and songwriter and close friend Bram Inscore, the latter of whom contributed to the album. “There’s been such extreme highs and lows in the last five years for us,” Sotelo reflects. “These are big life things that you just can’t ignore. There’s no way around it.” Once their hectic tour schedule wound down, Sotelo and bassist Jean Pierre Narvaez decided to quit drinking. “I don’t think I would’ve been able to make this record with the guys if I hadn’t made that decision,” Sotelo says. “It allowed me to re-evaluate who I was, and who I thought I was—in the context of the band, as an individual, and as an artist.”

Also today, Inner Wave releases their new single, “CHILD,” along with a music video. It’s the band’s third single of 2025, following the woozy, synth-heavy “MADRE” in August and the uptempo 12-string-guitar-heavy “PUSH” in September.

Blending the three-chord structure of a classic pop song with frequent changing of time signatures, “CHILD” embodies the “try-anything-once” approach that the band took into the recording process for the album. “This is one of those songs that deserves to be on Song Exploder,” shares bassist Jean-Pierre Narvaez. “I think super fans, music nerds and musicians alike will be psyched on figuring this number out. There are only so many songs that work in the “pop structure” context that can hold down a weird time signature and be as fluid as this one.”

The lyrics for “CHILD” see lead vocalist Pablo Sotelo reminiscing on an idealized version of the past. Fittingly, the key references for the track came from two older songs: “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness (2003) for the intro, and “Just What I Needed” by The Cars (1978) for the guitar tone.

WATCH: “CHILD” MUSIC VIDEO

On the live front, Inner Wave is set to play a special outdoor set on Sunday, November 9, at historic Los Angeles venue Lodge Room, with support from Brijean and Stolen Nova. The show will be their second in the area in 2025, following their Feb 1 performance at a benefit concert for victims of the LA fires, which was covered by The LA Times. Inner Wave will take the stage at 7:30 PM. Find more details on the show HERE.

ALBUM ART | Download HERE